It may be the industry's best-kept secret: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is actively pursuing fair lending cases, according to compliance experts speaking at an ABA conference this week. Whether any charges will be filed is a different matter.
Home-equity lending fell 15% in the first quarter of 2019 as the total supply of HEL debt outstanding continued to shrink. Heavy cash-out refinancing was a factor.
The trade association has created a disclosure template that lenders can give borrowers who apply for adjustable-rate mortgages linked to the London benchmark rate. Industry participants are still trying to determine how existing ARMs linked to LIBOR should transition to a new index.
Some of the sharp drop in non-agency jumbo securitization resulted from higher loan limits, but volume was buoyed by a large pool of seasoned loans sold to Freddie Mac.
The warehouse lending sector rises and falls depending on the origination volume of nonbank mortgage providers. The first quarter of 2019 yielded a 4.1% drop in loan production but warehouse commitments increased by 4.4%. Now, with rates headed lower, better days are ahead. But will it last?
It's common knowledge in the industry that the Treasury Department is working on a recap-and-release plan for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. To pull off such a massive undertaking the government will need an investment banker. But who?
Most of the 20% surge in refinance business likely came from rate-term transactions rather than cash-out deals. First-timers held up slightly better than re-peat buyers.
Former investment banker and Freddie Mac executive Bruce Witherell has parted ways with Promontory MortgagePath, a vendor owned by Eugene Ludwig, who once headed the OCC. Witherell is currently fielding offers.
In one of the largest M&A deals of the year, Freedom has agreed to buy RoundPoint Mortgage but details are hard to come by, including the issue of debt assumption. Meanwhile, industry advisors fear that declining interest rates might put other transactions on hold.
In a speech this week before the annual secondary market conference of the Mortgage Bankers Association, FHFA Director Mark Calabria sounded a little bit like the Mark Calabria of the Cato Institute.
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